Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter Bloemwater says it has offered the struggling Mangaung Metro Municipality a 35 percent discount on its outstanding of R1.1 billion water supply debt to help ease the city’s financial burden. In a statement, the local water board said it reached the settlement deal on Wednesday and hoped the municipality will stick to the new payment terms so that it pays up the bill. “Mangaung’s outstanding debt of approximately R1.1 billion was discounted to R715 million with some interest and drought tariff charges written off,” read part of the statement. The agreement, said Bloemwater, follows efforts by the national…

I want to ask you a question: if a 200 square-metre four-bedroomed home with two bathrooms, a double garage and a pool is worth R1 million, what is an eight-bedroom, four-bathroom, four-garage house with a pool and a tennis court worth? Double, the same or 50 percent more? What do you think? It is curious that the current market for reasonably priced properties is actually very active and people are getting bonds fairly easily. I have already said that buying a flat or less expensive townhouse is, with today’s low interest rates, probably going to cost you about the same…

Staff Reporter Ace Magashule’s ex-driver and bodyguard has been found guilty of stealing a painting valued at R8-million which once hung in the former Free State premier’s office. The Bloemfontein High Court today convicted Ricardo Mettler, 43, on charges of theft, money laundering and fraud. The case arose following the disappearance of the valuable JH Pierneef painting from the Free State provincial government’s OR Tambo building in Bloemfontein in 2018. Mettler first appeared in court in March this year following an investigation by the Hawks that established he had stolen the Pierneef painting. The former driver and bodyguard tried to…

Staff Reporter Irresponsible social behaviour could sink South Africa into a sustained second wave of coronavirus infections, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has warned. “The parties that we attend, the taverns that we go to non-stop for the whole night, the night clubs and all kinds of social gatherings that do not contribute to social distancing may lead us to a sustained second wave,” he said during his address to a select group of learners and inmates at the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre in Kroonstad on Thursday. The minister was there to oversee the handover of dignity packs…

Staff Reporter Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has praised a Kroonstad prison for donating dignity packs to needy school girls around the town saying the initiative will help them spend more time in class. He said the girls, most of whom come from very poor households, often miss school during their menstrual periods as they cannot afford sanitary towels, among other basics. Lamola said this when he officiated at a handover ceremony for dignity packs produced by inmates at the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre for women in Kroonstad. “This is a very important initiative that will go a…

Staff Reporter South Africa has entered the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said. In a televised national address on Wednesday night, Mkhize said at least four provinces in the country have recorded sustained increases of coronavirus cases in recent weeks and there were fears the resurgence could worsen if left unchecked. “We are now in a second wave,” said Mkhize. “The majority of the new cases today are from the Western Cape which accounted for 30 percent, followed by the Eastern Cape with 24 percent, KwaZulu-Natal 23 percent and Gauteng 17 percent.” “The Free…

Staff Reporter A Free State municipality has been asked by the provincial government to explain the procedures it followed in the awarding of a contract to build a water pipeline meant to ease the community’s water woes. Officials at Nketoana Local Municipality – which encompasses the farming towns of Reitz, Petrus Steyn and Lindley among others in the north-eastern region of the province – on Tuesday met with the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Thembeni Nxangisa, and his Treasury counterpart Gadija Brown to explain the status of the contract which has since been put on hold. “The…

Staff Reporter The Free State High Court has sentenced a 40-year-old man to 121 years in jail after he was convicted on two counts of rape and a host of violent crimes. Thabang Clement Ntsau was also convicted on four counts of housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery, housebreaking with intent to rob and attempted robbery, housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition. The offences were committed during a 10-year crime spree between 2007 and 2017. In a statement, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said Ntsau, a…

Staff Reporter University of the Free State (UFS) academic Professor Abdon Atangana has scooped another prestigious award for his outstanding work in mathematics. The 35-year-old researcher received The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Mohammad A Hamdan Award for his contribution to fractal mathematics and partial differential equations. The Mohammad A Hamdan Award is being awarded for the first time and one of the prestigious accolades given by TWAS. It is named after TWAS’s late vice president for the Arab region, Professor Mohammad A Hamdan. Atangana told The Free Stater in a brief written response that he was excited for the…

Staff Reporter The three teenage girls who were reported missing in Phuthaditjhaba have been found unharmed in Sasolburg. The three, who are all learners at Mafube Intermediate School, were last seen on November 20. Their school uniform was found in the dustbin outside one of the girls’ family house. The police’s Phuthaditjhaba Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit launched a search for the three girls and, with the assistance of the girls’ families, traced to a tavern in Sasolburg. Two of the three girls, Karabo Dlamini, 15, and Reamohetswe Maria Mohale, 15, were found on Wednesday outside a…